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WHY BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT TO BLAME IF BERNIE SANDERS LOSES
http://madamenoire.com/616394/why-black-people-are-not-to-blame-if-bernie-sanders-loses/However I am going to highlight one part of Ford’s interview, which speaks to the gist of their conversation:
“Well yes. Just looking at the numbers and seeing where those numbers go. And those numbers among Black folks are going three-to-one for Hillary Clinton nationally. In Nevada, she swept all of the Black precincts. We’re going to have a Super-Tuesday on March 1st, there will be 11 states having primaries; lots of them are in the South where the Black vote is important. And Hillary will be performing in those, uh, Black precincts. In South Carolina, Blacks younger than 45 years of age are going for Sanders at 35 percent. But 52 percent say they’re for Hillary. And remember Sanders among youngish white voters is leaps and bounds ahead of Hillary Clinton. In South Carolina, Black voters who are 50 years old, are going 78 percent-to-12 percent for Hillary Clinton. So this is a “brick wall” that Sanders is running into. It spells doom for his plan for the Democratic presidential nomination. It’s really over and it is because of the Black voters’ solid support for Clinton. And this does spell doom, I think doom for Sanders efforts to, as he puts it, transform from below because the below of the Democratic party is Black folks. We’re about 25 percent of that party. And if our presence were to transform the Party, we’d be seeing a very different kind of Party politically.”
I agree with some of what Ford has to say in the video. However, I’m also not too sure about the idea of putting the brunt of a Sanders’ loss on the shoulders of the entire Black America.
It is true that “nearly one-in-three eligible voters on Election Day (31%) will be Hispanic, Black, Asian or another racial or ethnic minority, up from 29 percent” and that in 2014, Black voters alone made up 23 percent of the Democratic vote. It is also true that Black voters had a huge impact on the 2008-2014 presidential election, which helped to usher in the first Black president and will likely having a huge impact on this one. And yes, it is true that young White voters tend to support Bernie Sanders, by “leaps and bounds” – at least among those who bother to vote.
However, it is also true that Black America are not the majority in this country. And White voters represent a clear majority of the electorate (on both sides of the aisle).
And, in the last couple of primaries, voter turnout, particularly on the Democrat side, was lower than it had been in previous elections. In fact, in Nevada there are reports that less than half the voters who came out in 2008 came out to caucuses this time around. Likewise, there was a much stronger divided among White Nevada voters over the two candidates than there was back in 2008 when Clinton received a firm majority of the White vote against Barack Obama.
What that tells me is that Sanders has not yet created the movement, even among his base, that he had hoped (at least based on the the data available from the three previous primaries). And if he hasn’t yet convinced his own people (White people who are familiar with him) on the so-called left to get to the polls, than how do we attribute a loss solely to Black folks?
Another issue I take with blaming Black folks for a Sanders loss, is that it leaves out a pretty important factor in why Black folks, by and large, have not turned out to vote for him.
In the same clip, Ford blames the “Black mis-leadership class” for misrepresenting the politics of the majority of Black people. I agree with that. But as stated many times before, even amongst his own team, Sanders suffers from the lack of recognition within the community. And as stated many times before, even by his own team, once people get to know Sanders, they feel much better about him.
So here’s the thing: in all of his 30 years in Congress doing the work for the people, why haven’t folks heard about him, his work and his policies until now?
Anecdotally, I once volunteered for President Obama’s campaign for a brief period back in 2007 here in Philadelphia. It was right before he officially announced his bid for office. As part of my service to the then-Senator, I went out on a couple of occasions to help canvass communities in hopes of getting support for the campaign. That was in April. And at that time, very few (and I mean “very few”) folks knew who Obama was. And even after we informed them of who he was, many of those same people did not think he could win – that included many Black people.
I bring up the story for several reasons: First, the lack of name recognition is what Sanders and Obama have in common. So if Obama who had only been in the Senate for a few years and had a much tougher road to climb (remember, he was not chosen by much of the mis-leadership class as well) could convince a bunch of folks who did not know him to vote for him against the establishment in 2008, it is possible for Sanders to do the same.
“Well yes. Just looking at the numbers and seeing where those numbers go. And those numbers among Black folks are going three-to-one for Hillary Clinton nationally. In Nevada, she swept all of the Black precincts. We’re going to have a Super-Tuesday on March 1st, there will be 11 states having primaries; lots of them are in the South where the Black vote is important. And Hillary will be performing in those, uh, Black precincts. In South Carolina, Blacks younger than 45 years of age are going for Sanders at 35 percent. But 52 percent say they’re for Hillary. And remember Sanders among youngish white voters is leaps and bounds ahead of Hillary Clinton. In South Carolina, Black voters who are 50 years old, are going 78 percent-to-12 percent for Hillary Clinton. So this is a “brick wall” that Sanders is running into. It spells doom for his plan for the Democratic presidential nomination. It’s really over and it is because of the Black voters’ solid support for Clinton. And this does spell doom, I think doom for Sanders efforts to, as he puts it, transform from below because the below of the Democratic party is Black folks. We’re about 25 percent of that party. And if our presence were to transform the Party, we’d be seeing a very different kind of Party politically.”
I agree with some of what Ford has to say in the video. However, I’m also not too sure about the idea of putting the brunt of a Sanders’ loss on the shoulders of the entire Black America.
It is true that “nearly one-in-three eligible voters on Election Day (31%) will be Hispanic, Black, Asian or another racial or ethnic minority, up from 29 percent” and that in 2014, Black voters alone made up 23 percent of the Democratic vote. It is also true that Black voters had a huge impact on the 2008-2014 presidential election, which helped to usher in the first Black president and will likely having a huge impact on this one. And yes, it is true that young White voters tend to support Bernie Sanders, by “leaps and bounds” – at least among those who bother to vote.
However, it is also true that Black America are not the majority in this country. And White voters represent a clear majority of the electorate (on both sides of the aisle).
And, in the last couple of primaries, voter turnout, particularly on the Democrat side, was lower than it had been in previous elections. In fact, in Nevada there are reports that less than half the voters who came out in 2008 came out to caucuses this time around. Likewise, there was a much stronger divided among White Nevada voters over the two candidates than there was back in 2008 when Clinton received a firm majority of the White vote against Barack Obama.
What that tells me is that Sanders has not yet created the movement, even among his base, that he had hoped (at least based on the the data available from the three previous primaries). And if he hasn’t yet convinced his own people (White people who are familiar with him) on the so-called left to get to the polls, than how do we attribute a loss solely to Black folks?
Another issue I take with blaming Black folks for a Sanders loss, is that it leaves out a pretty important factor in why Black folks, by and large, have not turned out to vote for him.
In the same clip, Ford blames the “Black mis-leadership class” for misrepresenting the politics of the majority of Black people. I agree with that. But as stated many times before, even amongst his own team, Sanders suffers from the lack of recognition within the community. And as stated many times before, even by his own team, once people get to know Sanders, they feel much better about him.
So here’s the thing: in all of his 30 years in Congress doing the work for the people, why haven’t folks heard about him, his work and his policies until now?
Anecdotally, I once volunteered for President Obama’s campaign for a brief period back in 2007 here in Philadelphia. It was right before he officially announced his bid for office. As part of my service to the then-Senator, I went out on a couple of occasions to help canvass communities in hopes of getting support for the campaign. That was in April. And at that time, very few (and I mean “very few”) folks knew who Obama was. And even after we informed them of who he was, many of those same people did not think he could win – that included many Black people.
I bring up the story for several reasons: First, the lack of name recognition is what Sanders and Obama have in common. So if Obama who had only been in the Senate for a few years and had a much tougher road to climb (remember, he was not chosen by much of the mis-leadership class as well) could convince a bunch of folks who did not know him to vote for him against the establishment in 2008, it is possible for Sanders to do the same.
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30 replies
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Not in their right minds. 
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]
Apparently we just don't know what's best for us. If they just explained it ONE MORE TIME... using words WE can understand... and including photoshopped memes... maybe THAT would work.
and 
Sid
